Donor Profile: Dr. Peggy Watanabe
For more than 20 years, Peggy Watanabe kept warm her dream of medical school while she embraced other loves first. After graduating from Wheaton College (IL), she married classmate August (Gus) Watanabe and together they moved to Indianapolis where Peggy became a graduate student in microbiology/immunology while Gus entered Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine. She earned an MS and PhD from her department and before she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the division of rheumatology in 1982, she and Gus had three children.
Peggy Watanabe (right) has hosted an ice cream social for visiting students from Moi University.
Medical school moved to the front burner and Peggy matriculated at IU School of Medicine. She obtained her MD in 1986 and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology followed. She joined the faculty at IU School of Medicine, where she worked until retiring in 2003.
It’s no surprise when asked what gives her a sense of pride, she points to medical school. “I am very proud that, despite the fact that I was 41 years old by the time I began medical school, I had persisted in achieving that goal long after most people would have given up.”
Dr. Watanabe welcomes the Kenyan medical and dental students.
Not only has she demonstrated formidable dedication to her distinguished career but also in her commitment to family, friends, causes near and dear to her and travel. Peggy learned about AMPATH during the inception years when Drs. Mamlin, Kelley, Van Reken and Einterz began to form the medical school partnership with Moi University in Kenya during the time her husband was chairman of the Department of Medicine.
She recalls, “I believe they researched the possibility to help start a medical school through a partnership in Ghana, Nepal or Kenya and decided on Kenya for a variety of factors. I firmly believe it is the correct philosophy to maximize our impact in low and middle-income countries. The impetus behind starting the medical school partnership was the idea that you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life.”
When asked who had a big influence on her life, she credits her husband. “He always was able to think in terms of the big picture; he believed in having a strategic plan for everything. It may not seem like I did, since it took me so long to achieve my goal of going to medical school, but factors outside my control governed that.”
From her years at the IU School of Medicine, it’s hard to find anyone she doesn’t know or with whom she doesn’t have some connection. Peggy is a loyal AMPATH donor and serves on the AMPATH development board. She has kindly opened her house for several years to host Kenyan trainees and other guests for a traditional ice cream social. As for her generosity she says, “My husband and I were always concerned with charity. Having been blessed with much, we felt we were obligated to give in return.”